XENOMORPHS 2 DEMO INSTRUCTIONS v1.0 A CULTURE PRODUCTION This program is a 5 level training series and demo for Xenomorphs 2. It is not really necessary to read the full instructions as the controls are gradually introduced in the briefings as the game progresses. This demo may be freely replicated and distributed, provided that its constituent files are not altered in any way. Copyright 1997 - Aidan Boustred 0 THE FULL GAME 0.0 Version History 0.1 Player stuff 0.2 Mission stuff 0.3 Contact address 0.4 Coming soon 1 PLAYING THE GAME 1.0 The Screen 1.1 The Icon strip 1.2 The Control Panel 1.3 The Scanner 2 CONTROLS 2.0 MOUSE 2.0.0 Basic stuff 2.0.1 Picking things up 2.0.2 Operating things 2.0.3 Waypoints 2.1 KEYBOARD CONTROLS 2.1.0 Important Keys 2.1.1 Fairly useful keys 2.1.2 Irrelevant stuff 2.2 SPECIAL CONTROLS 2.2.0 Multi-directional automatic fire 2.2.1 Lift operation 2.2.2 Closing doors 2.3 USING EQUIPMENT 2.3.0 Sidearms 2.3.1 Passive equipment 3 ABOUT THE GAME 3.0 A brief history 3.1 Credits 3.2 Programmers and musicians wanted 0 THE FULL GAME ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The full game contains loads of features which are not included in this simple demo. These include: 0.0 Version History ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ v1.0 Has slightly outdated control system and minor bugs. If the version number is not clearly labelled then it is a v1.0. v2.0 FLOPPY VERSION Power packed for playing from floppies. Control system upgraded from v1.0. New illustrated manual v2.1 HARD DRIVE VERSION Supplied LhA archived. Capable of automatically adding supplementary disks to preferences menu. IF YOU HAVE ANY REGISTERED VERSION, I WILL UPGRADE IT TO A NEW VERSION FOR £1.50 (To cover disks and postage). 0.1 Player stuff ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - 45 different marines, each with their own faces and attributes - 10 weapons (flamethrowers, grenade launchers etc.) - 18 pieces of equipment (mines, targeters, teleporters etc.) - 4 types of armour and sentry guns - Full squad selection program. Use the available stores to choose your troops for the next mission 0.2 Mission stuff ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - 15 missions with a wide variety of objectives - Scientists - Armed guards 0.3 Contact address ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When ordering, please specify your CPU, RAM and whether you have a CD & a HD. Costs: Full game (please specify version) 2 disks & 16 page illustrated manual - £7 Additional disks are £3 each. All prices include P&P Order from: Aidan Boustred Brook House Small's Hill Road Leigh Reigate Surrey RH2 8PF ENGLAND Email: a.m.boustred@sheffield.ac.uk 0.4 Coming soon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tournament Game ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Go head-to-head with a friend and fight their marines as you compete over new missions. Line-of-sight masking now applies to th ther squad to allow you to hide and creep up on each other. (Floppy or hard drive) Operation Pandora ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An unscrupulous bio-tech corporation has obtained a sample of the aliens and is planning to create the ultimate killing machine. As the trusted servants of the government, your squads are to in trate the laboratories and close down the project. (Translation: Smash down the doors and kill everything with gratuitous firepower) (Floppy or hard drive) Mission Designer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Design your own levels with an easy to use mouse driven interface. (Hard drive only) 1 PLAYING THE GAME ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1.0 The Screen ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The main game screen is divided into: - The message bar at the top. This gives information on the mission as it progresses. - One or two game screens showing an overhead view of the troops. - A vertical strip of icons. - The control panel at the bottom. This shows information on the squad. - The scanner screen. This cannot always show the whole map at once and can be scrolled around. 1.1 The Icon strip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The iconstrip has the following icons: - Select waypoints. - Activate waypoints. - Operate machinery. - Pick up/Drop equipment. - Use selected marine's manually operable equipment. (Player 1). - Use selected marine's manually operable equipment. (Player 2). - Display mission briefing. 1.2 The Control Panel ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For each marine this shows: (From left to right, top to bottom) - The marine's number - A light showing whether he is in manual or automatic control mode. (Green or red) - The marine's current health compared to his maximum health. - The selected piece of equipment. - A thin red bar showing uses remaining in the equipment. - The marine's rank. - The main weapon. - Number of remaining magazines. (A green number means +10 - eg a green 2 means 12. 10 is represented by the Roman numeral X) - Rounds remaining in the current magazine. 1.3 The Scanner ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The scanner shows: Currently selected marines - Yellow Squad 1 marines - Blue Squad 2 marines - White Other (Aliens, scientists etc.)- Red The unidentified red blips will only be shown if one or more marines are carrying a motion scanner. If marines are carrying a mapper, the areas they have explored will be shown here. 2 CONTROLS ~~~~~~~~~~ You can select to control the troops with either joystick or mouse. Note that the keyboard shortcuts will still work with mouse control. (The most useful being "use equipment" and "cycle through equipment"). 2.0 MOUSE ~~~~~~~~~ 2.0.0 Basic stuff ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Click on the left mouse button to send a marine to a point. Click on the right mouse button to turn towards a point. If the marine is in line with that point then he will open fire. (Be a bit careful turning near your own men). Click on the control panel to select a different marine. 2.0.1 Picking things up ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If the cursor is moved over an object then a hand will appear, indicating that an object can be picked up. Left Click and the marine will run to that spot and pick it up. To avoid this, move directly adjacent to the equipment and then when you move onto it, the marine will ignore it. When you are standing on an equipment item, click on the marine to pick it up. 2.0.2 Operating things ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If the cursor is moved over an object which can be operated (doors, lifts, computers etc.) then it will become a hand pressing a button. If you are directly adjacent to an object, this function will be ignored. Face the object and left click on either the marine himself, or the icon on the icon strip. 2.0.3 Waypoints ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These allow you to move several marines at once to a series of preset points. They can be used to secure rooms and corridor junctions extremely quickly. Either right click on the currently selected marine, or select the top icon on the icon strip (the cursor will change to the waypoint cursor) and then left click to put in a series of points for each marine. Right click cancels points. To trigger the marines, left click on the 2nd icon on the icon strip. If you just want one marine to move, then left click on him with the waypoint cursor. 2.1 KEYBOARD CONTROLS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These are used mainly in conjunction with the joystick, but they are also useful as keyboard shortcuts with the mouse. The first key given is for Player 1, the second is for Player 2. 2.1.0 Important Keys ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Q / Y - Operate machinery and lifts/ Shut doors. S / J - Use equipment. D / K - Select equipment. X / M - Pick up equipment, ammo and weapons. F / L - Set auto-rotate directions. 2.1.1 Fairly useful keys ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ W / U - Fire grenades from heavy pulse rifle. A / H - Automatic fire mode selector. E / I - Fire (Same as joystick button). 2.1.2 Irrelevant stuff ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ C / , - Swap equipment with the marine in front of you. Z / B - Give ammunition to the marine in front of you. V / . - Drop weapon. 2.2 SPECIAL CONTROLS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are a number of more complex ways to control your marines. These are not essential to play the game and will probably require a little experimentation to get the hang of. 2.2.0 Multi-directional automatic fire ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sometimes you will want a marine to cover more than one direction at once, for example at a corridor junction. To do this, point him in one of the directions which you want him to cover and press F/L. A red arrow will appear, pointing in this direction. Then rotate him to the other required direction and press it again. He will switch into auto-fire mode, and begin to rotate between the two directions. This can also be achieved with the mouse by selecting the "Set Waypoints" icon (right click on the selected marine). Then press the right mouse button again and sweep the cursor in the arc to be covered by the marine. 2.2.1 Lift operation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Face the lift buttons (so they are just in front of the marine) and press Q / Y to operate them. The green button makes the lift and occupants leave the sector. The red button calls the lift. When a lift is called, you will hear a tone to notify you. Only one lift in a sector can be called at a time. If the buttons have been covered by debris then they cannot be operated. 2.2.2 Closing doors ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Face the door and press Q / Y. If there is debris on the doorway it will not close unless it is a blast door. 2.3 USING EQUIPMENT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Some equipment is used automatically, but some must be operated manually. The thin red bar under the equipment shows how many uses are left. More information on all the following pieces of equipment is available from the main selection screen under "Equipment Details". To use a piece of equipment, press S/J, or if you are using a mouse, left click on the equipment icon on the control panel. To cycle through the 3 available equipment slots, press D/K or right click on the equipment icon. 2.3.0 Sidearms ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Pistols, grenades, chainsaws and rockets are sidearms. They must be selected to be used (in the currently displayed equipment slot). If the trooper's main weapon runs out of ammo, then the sidearm will be fired instead. If you are using the mouse, then left click on the equipment icon on the control panel. It will appear in a red circle next to the cursor. Now right click to fire the sidearm. To return the cursor to normal, right click on the trooper. 2.3.1 Passive equipment ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Targeters, Access Cards, Infra-red Goggles, Force Fields, Scanners, Mappers, Fire Resistant Suits, and Repulsion Fields are passive equipment. These function automatically without being selected. 3 ABOUT THE GAME ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3.0 A Brief History ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ April 1993 Started programming in AMOS. I'd done some BBC Basic years before. By the end of the evening I had a couple of ships floating about, and at the end of a week and a half I'd managed a crude two player spaceship combat game called "StarDuel" Sunday 25th April 1993 Started programming Xenomorphs. It was inspired by a combination of - "Quick Money" a fantastic 2 player PD game, the Games Workshop boardgame "SpaceHulk" and of course "Aliens" itself. I wanted to write a game with the following features: - Simultaneous 2 player facility - Fast and intelligent aliens. - Several troops under each player's control After a month it was fairly playable, but very crude compared to its current condition. Over a year later, I released the first version in Summer 94 after a year at university. It earned a mediocre review in Amiga User International and sank without a trace. (The review compared it to Alien Breed, which annoyed me intensely as the gameplay was nothing like it). As my course went on the work increased steadily and programming got slower. I programmed "Tank Attack" which went onto the Aminet in 1995. All the time Xenomorphs 2 dragged steadily towards completion. I had a brief go at getting it published,(No thanks to Audiogenic for lacking the basic courtesy of acknowledging correspondence), but in the end it has ended up as Shareware. 3.1 Credits ~~~~~~~~~~~ Thanks to all who have had a hand in the creation of Xenomorphs, by playtesting, designing levels, drawing graphics and just be encouraging. Special thanks to: Brad for his relentless enthusiasm, for struggling with a ludicrously unfriendly map editor, and for having a huge number of ideas. Phil for relentless quotation, for late/all night sessions and for mutual ideas as stupid as "Potatoes". Dave for sorting out the music, which I had no chance of managing myself. Stuart for playing "Quickmoney" with me and triggering the whole thing off. Steve for being another late night dosser and for making us chuckle with his ammo wastage and friendly fire incidents. Mark for plodding through dreary final play testing and for nagging me to finish it off. The "Wierzbowski Hunters" and their web page. It's nice to find someone else with an obsession that fuels pointless yet hilarious in-jokes. Michael for being amused by "Potatoes" when practically no-one else was. Also thanks to Nigel, Nick, James, Colin and everyone else who has play tested it at some point. HEARD TOO OFTEN "Do the canisters explode yet?" "Is it nearly finished?" "I heard dat" "You always say that, you always say...." "Yeah man, but it's a dry heat." Just about every other line from the film. 3.2 PROGRAMMERS AND MUSICIANS WANTED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am currently programming a space strategy game in which the player controls squadrons of small fighters. I would like someone code a PC version, preferably in C. I am only interested in someone who will definitely have the commitment to see the project through to completion. Have you completed a project before of comparable size? I am also unhappy with the current sound effects on Xenomorphs, and would like someone who could re-work these. Also anyone interested in doing the music and sound effects for the game described above should also contact me.